Op-er-a-tion Christ-mas Child. My heart just beats this tune no matter what cacophony is sounding in my ears. Sometimes when we are in a fog, we need a foghorn guiding us along what would normally be a familiar path. Shoeboxes are my foghorn. And our women’s ministry coordinator pressed its ON button for me a few weeks ago.

The Rose Parade has been a family tradition as far back as I can remember. I even got to go once, but I don’t remember much of it due to bad dates fruit. Ick. Blech. The floats looked like and I felt like this:

But the Rose Parade without poison coursing through various bodily tubes?

Ahhhh,, soooo pretty!

All those floats put together by bazillions of volunteers giving their time and gazillions of flowers and plant-based edibles giving their all.

Santa, Where Are You?

I must admit, I did look for Santa Claus a time or two. December went by in such a weird way that, I guess in my heart, I’d like a redo. But in this life – and the next – there will be no redos, just go on and dos,the theme(basically) for the Rose Parade!

The Rose Parade committee used the wording: “Making a Difference,” but the gist is the same.

No Santa, No Sinise?

I was over the moon to find out that Gary Sinise was the Grand Marshall for 2018, but I flipped to the dark side of the moon when I discovered I didn’t pop online in time to see him ride by.

Ah well, the show had to go on. Just like Gary Sinise does. On and on and on!

Gary Sinise has done phenomenal work with and for the veterans of the USA for several decades.

I came —> this close <— to seeing him at the Memorial Day celebration in DC, but alas he was celebrating a brand new grandbaby that weekend, which just warmed my heart toward him all the more knowing he chose family over service.

Home over beyond.

Serve the Service

Speaking of family and service, I didn’t make our holiday delivery of baby goodies to the USO this year due to a few circumstances and situations.

In September two monster hurricanes hit the US territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands one right after another. These storms wiped out homes and infrastructure and temporarily closed the tourist industry that provides jobs and livelihoods for the local residents.

Many families are left with nothing more than the shirts on their backs.